Been slack but here I am...

My beautiful new Swarovski Crystal Ring :)

Little Rosella Plant... It's forming buds now :)

Bailey and Nova doing their thing... lol

Lots of harvesting has been done over the last four months...

Oh boy I have been very slack... I think of the blog so often but just don't get on the computer anymore... This is the first time in months that I have sat down properly... Mainly the reason is due to me not having a computer of my own anymore... Tim has the iMac now. Russell has the iMac 2 and Josh has the Laptop... I don't need my own. I use the iPad or my phone. But from those I can't upload pictures... I might have to look into this a bit more as I would like to upload stuff as I do with Facebook...

Allot has happened since January... Josh has commenced with High School. Tim is doing exceptionally well at school. He got 13 A's and 3 B's for Effort and Behaviour last term. Josh has to pull his socks up a bit but he is only just getting used to not only homework and assignments but also having so many new different teachers.

During the last holidays we also went fossicking for the first time, for real. We packed up the family and went to Glen Innes for a week. We had a ball. NSW was not on holidays yet so we had most operators to ourselves. Many oldies around but it was lovely and quiet. :) The camper trailer did really well. We did underestimate the weather just a little and therefore were a little cold some nights. The days, though, were beautiful to say the least. Lots of Garnets, Sapphires, Black Jacks and Zircons were found...

More and more things have been put into our garden too and the herb garden especially has served us very well. Things are starting to now cool down. During the night we usually have 7-9 degrees so things are slowing down. Just hope that my Rosella will finish growing in time for me to make some jam :)

Work for me has been fantastic as last year. 1.3.12 saw me sign up for my Certificate 3 in Disability, which I am yet to start. It's all in the pipeline...

One of the guinea pigs was accidentally caught by Nova so we replaced her. She is multi coloured. I still take them up to work on a weekend which the residents just love. Am also having a ball driving the bus still. Must say that I really appreciate the way that my boss looks after not just me but all of us...

Russell is loving working at the local school... Maryvale still has him on a Tuesday and 1/2 Friday. Tough that. lol So glad that he is home and that he is also getting on board with the whole No Technology Day thing. That was hard at first but we now have Mondays and Thursdays as No Technology Days... We don't do the Low Electricity Days on Wednesday at the moment. That will probably come again when it's winter... maybe... I have a bit of resistance from Russell on that one so getting the two days no technology is great for now. Our electricity bills have been averaging $120 for the four of us, per quarter. This will be the last quarter without the new Carbon Tax that is being introduced in July. That is something that I am very concerned about and wish that it was being dealt with differently... 400 companies being charged... 400 chances (at least) to get slugged with another tax. At this point no one can tell us what it will mean for power, food, petrol, you know all the day to day living stuff. We already to as little as we possibly can and turn everything off. What else can we do but the powers that be are predicting $300 extra a year... That's a heap of money I don't want spend. Just so glad I have my panels on the roof, thinking I should have gotten more when I had the chance...

So there you have a quick update from what has been happening... Lots of work and not much else. Don't go anywhere really unless I really have to when I'm off.

Cheers Damaris

Striking Gold...

Panning for Gold on the first day...

Wettest Sept on record...

Beautiful moth I found.

Joshua's first gold flake...

More panning the next day...

Fishing had to be fit in as well. :)

Couldn't leave without playing golf :)

Timothy had to try out the creek :)

This is our second week of school holidays. Boys go back to school on Monday. So this week we had a night away from home and went camping... We went to Glendon Camping and Caravan Park, in Thane, 38km outside of Warwick. Not far from here at all. About an hour's drive... same distance as to Queen Mary Falls in Killarney...

We got there and straight away saw that there were many puddles of water lying around. There was water everywhere... The dam was full and we tried out fishing there. Timothy swam in the creek and I also did a bit of golfing with him. He had a ball. We also went on walks and for the first time ever we went panning for gold. Yep, GOLD...

Joshua was the first to find some... He found 10 pieces in total, Timothy found 6, Russell found 1 and I found 3 pieces... Oh what a wonderful time we had. It was just wonderful... Mind you the pieces where quite small... Nothing to write home about but we were still happy to find them all the same. :) We only went panning twice as we went home after just one night. We were supposed to stay for two but the weather on the first night was terrible and there were more storms forecast for the next night. So we let the tent dry out properly. Russell and Joshua packed it all up while Timothy and I played golf and then we all went home in two cars. We believe that we will be back. Both the Managers, Karen and Russell were wonderful and did all they could to help us enjoy our time there. Next time though I would say that we will make sure it is not sooo wet. :)

This is the last time that we camping with out tent. It is a huge thing called The Odyssey by Oztrail. Been a great tent but we are in the process of getting a camper trailer and I can't wait to take that one out on the road... Will be ready middle of October... Can't wait :) :)

Cheers Damaris

Finally a start on our Boys' Cubbyhouse...

Support for the Cubby Floorboards...
Nailing down the boards...35 boards x 10 nails each...

The boys have been very patient. First there was the problem of where to put it together. All the shed room was taken up with hay. Then there was my hand operation which has left me incapable to helping very much at all.

The hay problem is gone. My hand problem not so much but we have the room and that was the main thing. Russell did a great job clearing 1/3 of the shed as the cubby is rather on the large side.

The photos that I have here are only the start, it was all we could get done in a few hours on Saturday. Sunday I really wanted to get back out there but Russell was busily working on a Position Description for a job he was going for in Warwick. He will be home during the week if this job comes through which we are all hoping and praying for.

As Russell is not home during the week, we will be working on the cubby as much as we possibly can but it will take a while I think. So much gets squashed into our weekends already and it only gets harder to do things once the heat comes as well...

The dimensions are 2.4 x 2.4 metres square. There is a little porch area on the front of it. It is elevated 400mm off the ground and the cubby has a patio area also which is 2.4 x 2.4 metres square. So as you can tell by now it will be a while.

I can't wait till it is done though as I envisage a herb garden near by as well as some of Timothy's larger rocks displayed...

Cheers Damaris

Just plodding along...

Bailey keeping me company while I was feeling sad earlier this week...

It is now our third day without the cows and things are slowly going back to the way things were before. The front gate is still open and nothing has escaped. lol

The kids don't like to talk about them and neither do I. I have found out through email that they all arrived safely at Magrita Dexter Stud and that they are settling in very well. I was really glad to hear that.

We have now moved the bales of leftover hay out of the shed so that we can make a start on the cubby for the boys. The leftover bales will be used around the gardens and also help set up our new veggie gardens. They will certainly come in handy that is for sure. We are moving the veggie gardens down beside the shed at this point. We are starting with just one bed of 1.2m x 2.4m. It is rather late in the spring season now to start too much all at once. This way we can get some crops in and start from scratch really.

We are investigating about getting a hothouse and shade house as well. They will probably go down the side of the eastern side of the house so that the westerly sun in the afternoon doesn't hit it. They will not go against the house though rather against the retaining wall that goes down the whole length of that side of the house and then some.

Being inside the house area will also ensure that they don't get pecked at by the chooks. The fence around the veggie garden will be going up soon too to ensure hares, wallabies and chooks don't get anything before us humans do. lol

It has been a rather sad week for us here but you know what, things are looking up. We are making tracks on our plans to be self reliant and that is what is really important to us as a family. We all want this to work, not just Russell and myself.

So this weekend we are off to the Toowoomba Gem Fest. Timothy has been looking forward to it off course. Then Adam, a friend from Brisbane is staying from Sunday for a whole week. Can't wait for that either.

I joined Simple Savings a while ago now and just recently joined Flylady. Boy am I glad I did. I love her. Simple Savings has been a wealth of information for me and has helped me with things like: Monthly Meal Planner, decluttering, being more organised, cleaning more greener... The flylady has done her bit with her 15 minutes a day doing particular tasks. It has been fantastic and now I love to shine my sink. hehe

Anyway am off to put some washing away that my lovely husband brought in for me before the thunderstorm got too close, not that it came as it is now silent and still hot... Here is hoping. :)

Cheers Damaris

Timothy's treasures...

Some of Timothy's rocks...

When Timothy was young he was always fixated on something. Something that he could be interested in for a long time. This could be Lego or Magnetix. Didn't matter, if he was interested in it it held his attention span for a long time. Also if you talked to him, it was all he talked about. He was not interested in the conversation that you were trying to have with him. Very ASD I am afraid. Didn't make it easy for him to build relationships with other kids, let alone his brother.

One thing that he has been interested in for years now are rocks and gems. Rocks of all kind but especially ones that are really shiny. With fool's gold in them or tin. He loves them. He loves the slithers of rock from Thunder Eggs especially.

He has a huge collection of all sorts and loves to put them in rows and study them. He has many books on the subject and loves to tell anyone that will or will not listen about them. I am so glad that he has such an interest in this subject. For years he has been wanting to turn 12 so that he can get into the Warwick Lapidary Club.

In February this year he turned 12 and that is exactly the first thing after his Birthday that we did. We joined the club. Since then we have gone every two weeks after school (except while his broken arm was healing, off course). It is on on a Wednesday at their club house. He enjoys it so much and loves to tell everyone about his adventures there. He loves to spread the knowledge that he has gained and is very thankful to the lovely people that have shown him all he knows.

I hope that this little obsession continues though as he is really good at all he has tried so far. He is very good at it and his teachers have told him on various occasions how quick he is to pick up new skills. Now if only he was a little more patient and didn't want everything done all at once... Yes we are working on that. Slow process though. lol

Cheers Damaris